


The Dress

by deepspacevoyagers



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-16
Updated: 2018-02-16
Packaged: 2019-03-19 11:14:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13703319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deepspacevoyagers/pseuds/deepspacevoyagers
Summary: An abandoned dress in Garak's shop is finally claimed.





	The Dress

The dress had been in Garak’s shop for nearly five years.

He still remembered when the ensign had first stepped into his shop, shy but politely requesting for a dress. Quickly taking in her features as he welcomed her in – golden hair and fair skin that clashed badly with that awful blue sciences uniform – he knew that warm colours suited her best. To his disappointment, the ensign insisted that she wanted something very simple, and nothing special. Oh, he agreed that the Little Black Dress she was thinking about was timeless. But really, he knew that she would look the best in vibrant hues. No blues, her uniform was bad enough. (Which reminded him, so was Julian’s). After learning that she needed the dress for informal events on the station like Lieutenant Dax’s parties – she had just been stationed here with her husband – he finally persuaded her to go for a sleeveless knee-length dress, with an interwoven palette of pinks and oranges. She had fallen in love with the fabric samples and colours he had shown her, and immediately paid for the dress to be made. He told her it would take a few weeks as he needed to procure more of the fabric, and his orders were piling up.

Time passed and with the dress already looking stunning in its half-finished state, he kept expecting the ensign to drop by to take a look; to see how complementary it was to her looks. But she never showed up. It would have been a real shame if she had transferred elsewhere in a hurry, or been one of the unlucky ones on the _Odyssey_ on its ill-fated trip to the Gamma Quadrant. Either that or she was just extremely busy. Nevertheless, he finished the dress and moved on to his next commission. There was no point wasting time speculating on the whereabouts of his missing customers, especially since she’d already paid.

Life went on as usual, until one day, when news spread across the station that one Starfleet ship, _Voyager_ , had gotten lost in the Badlands while chasing the Maquis. It wasn’t so shocking to him – the area was extremely dangerous and it wouldn’t have been the first ship lost to its unnatural depths. Rather, he found it darkly amusing that Gul Evek had failed to catch those outlaws (he had never liked the Gul). But he never made the connection between the dress’ owner and _Voyager_ ’s disappearance until one of his lunches with Julian. The charming young doctor had mentioned that one of his patients, a Ktarian ensign, was distraught over losing his wife. Taking a sip of his coffee, he added that the ensign also refused to head to the shop and collect her dress.

But despite knowing what happened, nothing could change the fact that the dress still hung in his shop, unclaimed. After Starfleet officially declared _Voyager_ lost, he had sealed the dress in a garment bag and kept it in his backroom, a reminder on the fragility of life. He thought of bringing out the dress for prospective customers, to demonstrate his workmanship. Why deny others a chance to enhance their beauty? But he was no Ferengi, and he was content to let the dress be, abandoned but never forgotten.

Then on this fine morning he checked his messages and to his surprise, found a note from the Ktarian, now a lieutenant, stating that he would be collecting the dress. A quick chat with Julian and a perusal of his intelligence files revealed that _Voyager_ had somehow been located in the Delta Quadrant, and that the dress’ owner (and daughter!) was alive. Getting able to finally hand over the dress pleased him greatly. Unlikely as it was that _Voyager_ would find its way home within the conceivable future, the fact that the ensign was one step closer to finally wearing his creation satisfied him. As silly as it was, the increasing boldness of the Dominion and his beloved Cardassia ruining itself by the day made himself long for the tiniest bits of happiness. Stepping into the backroom, he located the dress and spent a few moments admiring it.

 _A work of art indeed, my dear Ensign Samantha Wildman_.

**Author's Note:**

> This story takes place in Season 6 of DS9/Season 4 of Voyager, sometime after the events of 'Message in a Bottle'.
> 
> Writing Garak was an interesting experience, but I'm not sure if I really captured his character...
> 
> Also, we know that Sam was on DS9 before coming on Voyager, but the show and books never really went into detail about her pre-Voyager life. This is one of the things I imagine she would have done.


End file.
